


Not Everyone Sees

by clwilson2006



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-29
Updated: 2012-11-29
Packaged: 2017-11-19 20:16:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/577234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clwilson2006/pseuds/clwilson2006
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An accident with Ancient Tech changes Evan's life, it's up to David to keep him together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Everyone Sees

**Author's Note:**

> Beta by the awesome fififolle and calcitrix. All remaining mistakes are my own possibly from where I ignored their suggestions and went my own way! Many many thanks to calcitrix for the additional hand-holding and for my amazing art.
> 
> Check out calcitrix's AMAZING art, at the end of the story as it's spoilery - if you can't wait its [here](http://i.imgur.com/iVfZH.jpg) and [here](http://i.imgur.com/vflhK.jpg)

“Major!”

Evan ignored David’s shout of alarm in favor of concentrating on breathing through the pain. Whatever that not-so-dead console had been for, it certainly packed a punch. He tingled all over from the electrical discharge and his vision was swimming. He blinked several times from his place on the floor, and David’s concerned face swam into view. Behind David he could see Katie Brown and Deborah Kiang also looking worried.

“Ladies, please,” Coughlin muttered. Pushing his way past them, he squatted down next to Evan.

“Major, how many fingers?” He held his hand up in front of Evan’s face – Coughlin was the team medic.

“Three and I’m fine,” Evan pushed Coughlin’s hand away, but when he tried to stand he found that his legs wouldn’t work properly.

David was kneeling on his other side; the botanist reached out and wrapped his hand around Evan’s wrist. Evan frowned, were they holding hands in public now? He finally realised David was taking his pulse when he looked at Coughlin in alarm.

“It’s racing, over a hundred,” David said, Coughlin pulled a pen light from his tac vest and pointed it towards Evan’s eyes. Evan flinched and cursed as the room swam again.

“OK, you are NOT fine, sir,” Coughlin informed him, “I’m calling medical.”

“I can walk back to the infirmary,” Evan protested. But actually he wasn’t sure he could. They were at the furthest reaches of the North pier, where a huge greenhouse had been discovered. It was empty after all this time, but the surrounding labs were full of consoles and workspaces all raring to go. So were the botanists. David had talked about nothing else for weeks.

Evan wasn’t even sure what had happened. This lab was full of shelves containing little boxes, each holding a dormant biological sample. The console he had leaned against was the only one in the room – completely dead according to the engineers who had been through the entire area the previous week making it safe for the botanists to move in and begin their work.

Evan tried to stand again, and made it shakily to his feet, but he was wobbling precariously, and both David and Coughlin had a hand on each of his arms. His legs were all tingly, like when you sat on them for too long and restricted the blood flow. He was pretty sure he could handle a bad case of pins and needles. They took two steps and he crumpled to the floor.

“Stay there, sir,” Coughlin said. “Medical are on their way, they’ll bring a gurney.”

 _Great._ thought Evan, wheeled through the city like an invalid, with all the marines watching him.

“You’re going to be okay,” David whispered at him, still holding onto Evan’s arm.

“You should get back to work,” Evan told him.

David frowned, and looked over his shoulder to where the other two botanists had already gone back to looking through the sample boxes.

“In a minute,” he replied, still not removing his hand from Evan’s arm. “When you’ve been taken to the infirmary,” he added.

Evan smiled at him, and was rewarded with a smile in return, though it was nowhere near David’s usual standard, and he still looked worried.

Coughlin busied himself doing goodness knows what while the two of them stared dopily at each other. The moment was broken by Dr. Beckett and a horde of nursing staff bursting into the lab.

Beckett dropped down beside Lorne.

“What have you done to yourself this time, lad?” he asked, but didn’t wait for a reply as he was already starting his examination.

Ten minutes later Evan was hefted onto the gurney and wheeled away.

“I’ll visit you later,” David called after them. “Bring you some dinner.” But Evan and the medical team were gone.

Coughlin looked at him sympathetically.

“Back to work then,” David shrugged.

“Stay away from that console,” Coughlin warned, and followed him back to his colleagues. 

David didn’t get much work done that afternoon.

~~~OOO~~~

Dr. Beckett decided to keep Evan overnight - the Major was not at all happy about this. Beckett had told him that his blood sugar was low and had insisted he have an IV of fluids and a glucose shot. All the feeling had returned to Evan’s legs and he wasn’t in any pain. And he was bored.

Coughlin and Reed had already been by to visit, Reed seemed overly happy he hadn’t been in the greenhouse lab but rather on a jumper run to the mainland - because the regularly scheduled jumper pilot was sick. Coughlin had just been pleased that Evan was better now, though he didn’t take any of his hints about getting out of the infirmary.

Dinner time had been and gone, and no sign of David. The nurses had brought Evan some food, the fake-meat was even worse than usual as it had started to go cold on its long journey from the mess hall to the infirmary. He ate it though, he was ravenous, and he even ate the fruit cup.

His only other visitor had been Cadman, she’d told him that Colonel Sheppard had forbidden him visitors because he was likely to talk them into helping him escape, and he could do with a rest anyway. She gave him a four month-old copy of Cosmopolitan to read.

He was flicking through the magazine, incredulous that women read this crap, when David finally showed up. He was carrying a tray from the mess hall.

“Oh God, David, tell me you brought me something decent,” he begged as he sat himself up in his bed.

David put the tray on the wheeled table and moved it so it was positioned over Evan’s lap.

“It’s just soup,” David said, lifting a plate off the bowl, and Evan got a face full of delicious smelling steam. “Potato, carrot and tava root,” David continued. “I think it’s come out alright, the carrot adds a bit of sweetness to the tava root, and the potato gives it a nice texture. And some Athosian flatbread,” he grinned. “It’s still warm, Marta and Kanaan were giving cooking lessons, and you reap the benefits.”

Evan spooned up some of the soup; it was as wonderful as it smelled. David broke off a piece of the bread and dunked it in the soup, eating it himself rather than offering it to Evan.

“Hmm, not bad.”

When he had finished all of the soup and bread, Evan pouted at the dinner tray.

“Were they out of pudding cups?” he said mock-sulkingly.

“I got something better,” David whispered, and he looked around him to check they were alone, even though the privacy curtains were closed.

With a huge grin, David reached into his pocket and pulled out a Mars bar, dropping it on the table in front of Evan. Evan pounced on it.

“Oh My God, where did you get this?” He held the chocolate reverently.

“It’s my last one,” David shrugged. “I was saving it for a special occasion, but this one will do.”

Evan looked from the Mars bar to David and back again.

“We’ll share it,” he declared, and ripped off the wrapper, then broke it in two and offered half to David.

Evan had eaten his half of the Mars bar and he watched David licking the last of the chocolate off his fingers.

“Don’t do that,” Evan groaned.

“Huh?” David stopped licking, one finger in his mouth as he looked at Evan. He seemed to catch on to Evan’s meaning and with a wicked grin, slowly licked his finger some more.

“David,” Evan whined.

They were interrupted by the night nurse; she checked Evan’s blood pressure and temperature and adjusted the IV bag.

Then she threw David out. He took the trash from dinner with him, and with one last look he was gone.

“Do you need something to help you sleep?” the nurse asked Evan.

 _My partner back,_ he thought, but he told the nurse he was alright. She fussed and tucked him in like a child. The first thing Evan did when she left was kick the sheet and blanket untucked, then he eventually drifted to sleep.

~~~OOO~~~

Evan was discharged the next morning as everything was back to normal but he’d been told to take the next two days off, and the day after that was the mandatory rest day, so he was staring down the barrel of three days off and a very busy boyfriend. He was wondering what to do after his shower when the door swished open and David let himself in. They stood a few feet apart and simply stared at each other for a moment; David’s face was a mask of worry.

“I’m OK,” Evan said.

“I was so worried,” David said at the exact same time.

Talking seemed to break the spell that had them standing there and they wrapped themselves around each other, their kiss was hard and demanding at first, their bodies pressed tightly together, eventually the kiss gentled and David spent some time just holding Evan’s face and dropping tiny kisses on his lips.

“I’m really OK,” Evan whispered.

“I know,” David straightened, “and you smell of infirmary, into the shower with you.” He took Evan’s hand and dragged him into the bathroom.

David started stripping immediately.

“It was just such a shock, watching you get thrown across the room like that,” he said while unbuttoning his shirt. “I’ve sort of conditioned myself to accept that in your line of work you’re bound to get hurt, and often I’m going to end up watching you get hurt.” His t-shirt was swiftly removed and tossed on top of his shirt on the floor. “It was so unexpected to see it here, at home; I’m going to kill whichever engineer cleared that lab for use.” David paused, looking at Evan. “Come on, take your clothes off.”

“What are you doing?” Evan asked as he watched David shuck off his shoes and drop his pants and underwear in one smooth move. Evan stared a little as David stood before him, gloriously naked.

“I’m showering with you, of course,” David reached for Evan’s clothing; it was the same uniform he’d been wearing yesterday, before his stay in the infirmary.

Evan batted David’s hands away and started to undress.

“I won’t get clean with you in there too,” he said.

“Of course you will,” David snorted, “I’ll make sure of it.” He leaned over and started the shower running, holding his hand under the spray of water until he was happy with the temperature - Ancient showers and plumbing were just as temperamental as Earth showers and plumbing.

“I’m big enough to wash myself.”

“I need to make sure,” David said. “I need to touch you.”

Evan kicked off the last of his clothing and pressed himself against David, running his hands up David’s arms.

“OK,” he agreed, “we can do that.” He followed David under the shower and let the pounding water wash over him, his neck and shoulders really did ache, and the water felt lovely against his skin. He hadn’t realised he’d closed his eyes in bliss until David started to wash him.

“You have a very large bruise here,” David said as he carefully washed across Evan’s shoulders, “You really hit that wall with some force.”

Evan tried to twist and see his back where David was washing but it hurt too much. He sucked in a breath at the sudden pain.

“Don’t twist like that, I got it,” David said and continued to wash Evan’s back with great care. 

David squatted and washed the back of Evan’s legs and his ass. Evan twitched, when David ran the wash cloth down the crack of his ass, and David chuckled.

“No games,” he said. “Turn around, let me do the front.” Evan turned, presenting David with his hard cock.

“You sure about the ‘No games’ thing?” Evan laughed.

“Yes,” David completely ignored Evan’s dick and stood, rinsing out the wash cloth and applying more soap he washed the front of Evan with just as much care as the back. This was completely new behaviour to Evan, they’d shared showers before, but usually for blowjobs or some sort of sex, the level of attention David was giving him made Evan feel loved in a way he hadn’t before.

David put the washcloth to one side and pulled down the plastic bench that was in all the Atlantis showers.

“Sit,” he commanded, picking up the bottle of shampoo.

Evan sat, it put him in a great place to simply reach out and take hold of David’s cock, David was hard too, but he still pushed Evan’s hands away.

“I said no games. We have the whole day for that.”

“Aren’t you going back to work?” Evan asked, closing his eyes against the sudden mass of soap David had produced in his hair.

“I’m taking the day off,” David informed him, “tomorrow too.” David worked his fingers into Evan’s scalp. “Maybe,” he added. Evan smiled, it was difficult to pull David away from his work at times, but Evan loved that passion that he had for his work, David had quite literally made his job his life and he loved it.

Evan sighed as David rinsed his hair. When he was soap free Evan wrapped his arms around David’s waist and leaned his forehead against David’s belly. David continued to run his hands through Evan’s hair.

“This was nice,” Evan murmured against David’s skin. “We should do this more often.”

“With or without games?” David asked.

Evan chuckled, and stood. He managed to sneak one quick kiss before David shut off the water and it was suddenly chilled in the room.

The military issue towels were hard and scratchy, so they quickly dried themselves, smiling at each other as they did so. Evan went to the bedroom and pulled open a dresser drawer to look for underwear. A hand on his arm stopped him. David pulled him close.

“You won’t need any clothes, I’ve not finished with you,” he said

“Oh so now you want to play?” Evan laughed.

David was entirely serious; he pulled Evan to the bed and laid him down, caressing his skin wherever he could reach.

“Still need to touch you,” David whispered between kisses across Evan's chest, Evan sighed and threaded his fingers into David’s still damp hair.

“Go right ahead,” Evan murmured in reply.

Neither of them spoke while David touched and kissed what felt like every inch of Evan’s skin, and when he finally settled between Evan's legs and wrapped his lips around Evan's cock, Evan barely had time to draw a breath before he was coming.

David raised his head from Evan's spent cock, licking his lips he looked down at Evan, and Evan grinned back dopily. David stroked himself to completion, coming on Evan's stomach, marking him in a way that nobody else would know about. Evan reached for David.

“Come here,” he mumbled

“I’ll just clean us up,” David said

“In a minute,” Evan insisted, so David flopped down next to him. They fell asleep like that.

~~~OOO~~~

Evan stirred himself awake; sunlight was streaming through the window, bathing them in a warm halo. He couldn’t believe he’d had sex in the middle of the day, he hadn’t done that for quite some time. He scratched at his belly, and yes, now he regretted not letting David clean them up before falling asleep.

“David!” he nudged David awake.

“Ew.” David said, glancing at the dried mess on Evan.

“Totally,” agreed Evan, and he dragged David back to the shower, they were much quicker this time, because they were both ravenous having missed lunch.

Dressed in sweats and t-shirts they made their way to the mess hall, they had just started serving the evening meal, but the afternoon military shift had not ended yet so it was almost empty. A couple of scientists bent over a datapad and a lone airman was reading a book. Just as Evan and David took their seats a group of people came in, Coughlin and Reed and the rest of David’s Botany team from the investigations. David waved them over to join them, and dinner became a loud friendly event.

Evan bugged Coughlin and Reed for updates, though they were tight-lipped about most things and David chattered to Katie Brown and Deborah Kiang. When they finished eating David nudged Evan under the table with his foot. He waggled his eyebrows at Evan and pulled a face. Bizarrely Evan understood him perfectly, and nodded at him with a grin. 

When they parted ways, David went to the new lab and back to work and Evan went back to his quarters. Considering he’d slept for a couple of hours in the middle of the day he was really tired, and his shoulders and neck ached badly. He took some of the pain killers Dr. Beckett had given him and lay down on his bed.

It took a while and lots of shifting about but eventually he fell asleep.

It was past midnight when movement in his room woke him, Evan sat up in bed and couldn’t help the yelp of surprise as pain lanced down his back. He’d settled in an odd position and his upper back, shoulders and arms were stiff.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” David’s voice came out of the dark. Evan used his gene to bring the lights up a little, enough to watch David strip to his underwear.

“It’s late, go back to sleep,” David said.

Evan took another two painkillers from the table beside the bed and downed the remainder of the glass of water. He settled next to David.

“I must have slept in an awkward position, I’m all stiff,” Evan complained, shifting to get comfortable in David’s embrace.

“I have some lavender and rose essential oil in my room; I’ll give you a massage in the morning,” David said drowsily.

The painkillers slowly kicked in and Evan was asleep long before David finished telling him about the lab he was working in.

~~~OOO~~~

The smell of coffee roused Evan in the morning; he rolled over in bed and groaned at the ache in his back and neck.

“Coffee,” he mumbled, squinting across the room at David, who was not only up but fully dressed and sitting at the small side table, two mugs, two plates and a large bottle of amber liquid in front of him.

“Not for you, not on those pain killers, I got you tea.” David stood and brought the tea over to Evan. He put it on the bedside cabinet and perched himself on the bed beside Evan.

“You don’t look so good,” he said running his fingers through Evan's bed head.

“Hurts,” moaned Evan, not moving. “I must have slept funny again.”

“Well, up and shower and breakfast, and then I’ll see if I can’t work those kinks out of your shoulders.”

Evan wanted to move, David gave wonderful massages, and the thought of those long, strong fingers kneading his stiff muscles was very appealing right then. He struggled through the sharp pain in his back and hauled his ass out of bed.

Evan stopped at the table and took a sip of his tea, it was Earth tea thank goodness, the Athosian stuff was simply too strong for his tastes no matter how much sugar he put in it, he couldn’t grasp how David could drink the stuff black. There was a muffin on one plate and a bagel with huge amounts of cream cheese on the second plate.

“Which one is mine?” he asked David,

“Whichever you want,” David shrugged. “Or we could share both.”

Evan smiled, David knew him so well, he picked up the knife and cut the bagel in half, He took a huge bite and then put the rest back on the plate, licking the cheese off his fingers.

“I’m going to shower,” he mumbled around a mouthful of bagel, and disappeared into the bathroom.

His shower was speedy, he was hyper aware of David and his breakfast waiting for him, although unusually for him, he wasn’t particularly hungry. He was looking forward to a massage and some more painkillers, and maybe he would get some time with David today, seeing as he didn’t need to work. He wandered from the bathroom completely naked, his damp hair sticking up all over. It earned him a huge smile from David.

The bed had been made while he was showering and David had spread a couple of towels on it.

David patted the bed, “Come and lay down,” he instructed.

Evan took another bite of his bagel, and popped himself two painkillers from the packet. He swallowed them with the food, and joined David on the bed. He sipped at his tea and smirked at David,

“Front or back?” he asked.

“I’ll _start_ with your back, that way I might do some good before it becomes more about getting off than getting you relaxed,” David told him.

“You are so smart,” Evan smiled and leaned in for a kiss.

“Mmmm.... you taste of coffee,” Evan kissed David again.

“And you taste of cream cheese,” David pushed Evan away and down onto the bed. “Lay down already, I might want to swing by the lab later.”

“Oh woe is me,” Evan intoned, laying down flat on his stomach. “All alone and abandoned for some plants.”

David playfully smacked his backside. “You’ll get over it, and if you’re a good boy and don’t do any work today, as instructed by your doctor, I shall give you the most perfect blowjob in the world tonight.”

“Perfect, huh?”

“Yep. Totally perfect, you know I’m that good.”

“Yes. Yes you are.”

The smell of lavender filled the room when David opened the bottle of oil.

“Hmmm... too much lavender in this batch I think,” David murmured, but it didn’t stop him pouring a liberal amount on his hands and then dripping some across Evan's back.

Evan twitched at the feel of the cool liquid, but David immediately put his hands on Evan's back and started to rub in slow lazy circles. Evan sighed. This was going to be so good.

A few minutes later and David really started to get to work on Evan's neck and shoulders, it hurt far more than Evan expected and he couldn’t help the wince of pain.

“Am I hurting you?” David asked, his concern evident in his voice.

“It’s not you, I think it’s me,” Evan said. “How big is the bruise?”

“It is rather large, and a nice purple color, from here,” David touched Evan’s shoulder blade, “to here,” he touched the other shoulder blade.

“The painkillers will kick in soon, keep going,” Evan told him.

David carried on with the massage, but even Evan could tell he was going slower and being gentler.

David made a few odd hums and stopped.

“What’s wrong?” Evan asked. “You can’t be finished already.”

“Evan...” David paused.

“What?”

“There’s a bit of a lump here, it feels odd, all hard, not like knotted muscle at all.”

“Oh.” Evan tried to twist round to look at David but it hurt too much.

“It’s probably just bruise from hitting the wall,” David said decisively

Evan nodded. “Well we won’t worry about it then, carry on.” And he flopped back on the bed.

“I’m going to miss that area out for now.” David said, and moved his hands to Evans lower back, being careful not to tickle. Evan was extremely ticklish on his sides, and a squirming giggling Evan was nice on occasion but not what David was looking for today.

David continued the massage down Evan’s back and then shifted down the bed and did the backs of Evan’s legs.

When he’d done that he nudged Evan to turn over, but Evan had fallen asleep. David smiled to hmself and then draped a spare towel over his ass. Carefully he slid his hands over the bruise again. There was definitely a lump in the middle of Evan’s back, right near his spine. It was quite small and David couldn’t see it, only feel it. The skin was badly bruised and the rest of the top half of Evan’s back was slightly swollen with the bruising. David decided to keep an eye on it. Human biology wasn’t really his thing but he was thinking haematoma of some sort and figured it would heal in time, along with the bruising.

David let Evan sleep, he wasn’t the sort for oversleeping so his body must need the rest. 

David cleared away the massage oil and washed his hands, and then he sat on the couch with the muffin and his mostly cold coffee and pulled out his datapad, maybe a few minutes uninterrupted work would pass the time.

After thirty minutes David decided he was going to actually go to work, he scribbled a note for Evan and left it on the table where he could see it. The note instructed Evan to meet him for lunch in the mess hall and had a doodled flower with a smiley face instead of David’s name at the bottom. David reread the note then added a couple of kisses at the bottom. He let himself out of Evan’s room and went straight to the new lab.

~~~OOO~~~

Evan failed to show up for lunch, so David went searching. In fact nobody had seen Evan all morning. David found him still asleep, in exactly the same position as he had left him that morning. Evan was groggy and stiff when David woke him up, so David forced some more painkillers and a glass of water in to him and then dragged him to the infirmary.

Dr. Williams was on duty and she poked and prodded Evan enough to make him cry out in pain. He finally admitted he couldn’t even feel the lump, and that it was David who was the one who was worried. The look David shot him clearly said there would be no promised perfect blow-job that day.

“I wouldn’t worry,” she told him, “It’s probably just bruising from the bump you took yesterday. David rolled his eyes at the word ‘bump’ “But seeing as you are in quite a lot of pain I’ll give you some stronger pain relief and you can keep an eye on it. Come back if you have any more concerns.”

David decided to attempt to keep Evan awake that afternoon; they walked the length of the southeast pier and took a late picnic lunch of sandwiches with them. Evan didn’t eat much and yawned his way through the meal, so they went back to Evan’s room, where David made him play about a million games of cards, most of which Evan lost.

Finally, after they had been back to the mess hall and David had made Evan eat a hot meal, David let Evan go to bed. It was far earlier than usual and he took some of the stronger painkillers and went out like a light. David curled up next to him and read for two hours before finally turning out the light and drifting into sleep.

~~~OOO~~~

David woke alone in the bed, he turned over looking for Evan. He couldn’t understand why Evan wasn’t there - this was after all Evan’s room. He relaxed back onto the bed when he saw a strip of light from under the bathroom door; everything was all right, then.

He jerked awake mere moments later, sure he had heard something break in the bathroom. He listened intently and heard a muffled curse. Silently David slid out of bed and padded to the bathroom door.

“Evan?” he called.

“Just a minute.” Evan replied, sounding odd.

“Are you alright?” David asked

“Fine,” Evan’s voice was muffled by more than the door, then came the distinctive noise of breaking glass and Evan swearing.

“I’m coming in,” David said as he slid the door open.

“I said I was fine,” Evan kept his back to David. He sniffed, and David wondered if he was crying. Gently David placed his hand on Evan’s shoulder, mindful of the bruise across his back. Evan shrugged his shoulder, but David didn’t move his hand, and Evan sucked in a breath and scrubbed his hands over his face.

“I broke a glass,” he said from behind his hands.

“Did you cut yourself?” David peered into the sink but could only see broken glass, no blood.

“No.” Evan pulled away from David and sat down on the edge of the bath tub.

“Evan, what’s going on?”

Evan looked at David, he was pale, with shadows beneath his eyes, which were red rimmed and watery. David stroked his fingers down the side of Evan’s face.

“Talk to me, please.” David pleaded. 

Evan leaned into the touch, and then he drew in a huge shuddering breath and slid off the side of the bath to sit on the tiled floor. David sat next to him.

“I can feel it,” Evan whispered.

“Feel what?” David was lost by the conversation.

“The lump,” Evan hissed. “It’s gotten bigger.”

“Since this morning?” David asked “Evan, you can probably feel it because you know it’s there now. It’s psychological.”

Evan gave him a disbelieving look.

“Ev?”

“My father died from cancer,” Evan blurted.

“I... I didn’t know that, I’m sorry.”

Evan sighed, resting his head on David’s shoulder.

“I was very young, four or five,” Evan said. “My mom told me that Daddy had a bad lump, but the doctor was going to take the lump away and Daddy would be all better.” Evan shifted on the floor and David wasn’t sure if it was the cold tile or the story that was making him uncomfortable. David took hold of Evan’s hand and squeezed it gently as Evan continued.

“Everything was about Daddy’s lump, I couldn’t seem to do anything to make him happy. And then it was Daddy’s leg. Daddy’s leg was bad.” Evan sighed, David’s heart ached for the young boy who had had to witness this.

“I saw it once.” Evan whispered. “He was coming out of the bathroom, in just a robe, and he had one normal leg and then this huge red and grey _thing_ where his other leg would have been. I had nightmares for months. I was too scared to tell my mom, though,” Evan gave a dry chuckle, and then sobered. He looked at David,

“What if I’ve got the same?” he asked “What if I’m going to turn all red and grey and then die?”

David took Evan’s face in his hands.

“Evan,” he said seriously. “We live in the city of the Ancients, we have medical equipment so far advanced we’re not even sure what to do with it.” He kissed Evan lightly on the lips. 

“Besides, Earth technology has come so far in the twenty-five years or so since your father passed away. You’re going to be absolutely fine.”

Evan nodded slightly, and leaned in to kiss David again.

“Do you want to go to the infirmary, have them check it out?” David asked.

“It’s the middle of the night!” Evan protested.

“It doesn’t matter, it’s not like they have set opening hours. If it will make you feel better we can go now.”

“In the morning,” Evan said decisively. “You’re probably right, it’s psychological.”

“Okay,” David agreed. “Well in that case, you’re freezing. Come back to bed and let me warm you up.”

Evan let David pull him to his feet and lead him back to bed. They snuggled together under the blankets. David soon slipped into sleep, but Evan lay awake the rest of the night staring at the ceiling.

~~~OOO~~~

Evan was awake when David woke up the third day, though the pinched look on his face clearly said he was still in pain. He refused the stronger painkillers this time, saying that they made him drowsy.

Evan put off going to the infirmary until after breakfast, at least that’s what he told David. After David had been dragged away from the breakfast table by Doctors Brown and Kiang, bursting with excitement at another late night discovery. Evan wandered down to the gym,figuring a few light exercises might loosen him up a little and maybe take his mind off of the lump on his back. It felt like someone had wedged a dinner plate between his shoulder blades. He didn’t want to bother Dr. Miller again, if he was honest with himself, he wanted to see Carson about it. If he was really honest with himself he was hiding from it because he was a little scared. He shoved his fear aside and changed into sweats and t-shirt and began a few warm-up stretches.

When the gym started to fill with off-duty marines and Ronon and his sparring buddies, Evan forced his military mask firmly into place and ignored his pain in order to join in their more strenuous exercising. He ached all over when they broke for lunch, but that didn’t stop him from joining Stackhouse, Markham, and Reed in the mess hall.

He pushed his spaghetti bolognaise around his plate a few times before he gave in and surreptitiously took a few painkillers at the lunch table.

Stackhouse smirked at him.

“Looks like we wore the Major out,” he chuckled

“Ohhhh, maybe we broke him,” Markham laughed.

“I think he’s just getting old,” Reed smirked.

They noticed the stony look on Evan’s face and the laughter stopped.

“Sir,” they chorused, way too late.

Evan grinned, and they relaxed.

“I’m just a little bruised from getting thrown across the room by Ancient tech the day before yesterday,” he told them. “I can still take any or all of you babies.”

“Yes, si,.” Markham said, though his grin said otherwise.

“I’d offer a wager on that,” Reed said, “but I wouldn’t want to take advantage of you in your weakened state.”

Evan stuck his tongue out at Reed and the laughter started up again.

He tried to eat some more of his spaghetti, but it had gone cold, so he left it, and pulled apart his chunk of bread instead. He managed to eat most of that while the other conversation washed over him. He was unaware of how much time had passed until Stackhouse shook his arm.

“Sir? Major Lorne? Are you alright, you’ve gone really pale.”

Evan looked at Stackhouse, the room spun and Stackhouse blurred for a moment.

“I don’t feel so good,” Evan whispered.

“I’m taking you to the infirmary,” Stackhouse said, tugging gently on Evan’s arm. He had no idea where Markham and Reed had vanished to.

“I’m Okay.” Evan shrugged him off. “I’ll just go back to my room and lay down for a little while.” He stood up, and swayed slightly as the room spun again.

“Um... No, Sir. I’m taking you to the infirmary. I don’t want that Botanist hunting me down if you’re sick and I didn’t help,” Stackhouse said, leading Evan from the room.

Evan was still processing that statement when they stepped from the transporter outside the infirmary.

“What?” he said, frowning at Stackhouse.

He could see Stackhouse’s mouth moving but couldn’t hear anything over the sudden whooshing sound in his head. He lost all control and vomited where he stood. Unfortunately he was standing directly in front of Stackhouse and the marine caught most of what Evan threw up. Fortunately, Evan hadn’t eaten much.

“Sorry,” he slurred, and passed out.

~~~OO~~~

Evan clawed his way back to consciousness slowly. His head was pounding, his mouth dry and his back and shoulders were agony. He must have made some sort of noise because suddenly there was a gentle hand on his shoulder and a soft Scottish voice coming from somewhere above.

“Major Lorne?”

Dr. Beckett he managed to identify, and that meant the infirmary, which he was grateful for because he couldn’t quite think straight through the pain.

“Hurts,” he tried to say.

“I know, Major,” Dr. Beckett said. “I just need you awake for a wee while then I can give you something stronger for the pain. Can you open your eyes for me, lad?”

He was curled on his side and he tried to straighten his body and roll onto his back, but the burning pain that shot up his spine pushed all the breath from his lungs in a scream.

“No. No Major, do not move.” Carson’s voice was faint and distant over the roaring in his ears, and there were cold hands on his body trying to stop him moving. He instinctively started to fight and the pain ratcheted up another level; someone was screaming and he had no idea it was him. Dimly he heard Beckett yelling for a sedative. Then blackness took him away.

Waking up a second time hurt less, but his mind was foggy and it took him a while to work out where he was and that he had been restrained awkwardly on the bed. Curled on his side, thick leather straps wrapped around his wrists tied him to the bed, and further thick padded leather wrapped over his torso and waist. He panicked and started to twist, the dull throb in his back and shoulders flared and the pain washed away the last of the floaty feeling.

“Keep still or I’ll stun you,” a gruff voice said, a familiar face swimming into his vision.

“Ronon?” His words were much clearer.

“Yeah!” Ronon laid his huge hand on Evan’s shoulder. “Stay still. I’ll get the Doc.” And Ronon was gone.

Evan had no choice but to obey, breathing evenly, calming himself. The spikes of pain lessened when he didn’t move, and he was very tired all of a sudden. He blinked a few times; he needed to stay awake for Dr. Beckett.

“Major. Good, you’re awake. What can you remember?” Dr. Beckett asked him.

He needed to think.

“Er... I was at lunch. I didn’t feel well. I was supposed to come in this morning,” he tried to smile at Dr. Beckett, but Beckett was not smiling back. “Hold on, did I vomit on Stackhouse?”

“Aye, that you did.” Dr. Beckett confirmed.

“Oh. Tell him I’m sorry.” Lorne was mortified.

“He said he had been through worse, he was more worried about you at the time,” Beckett smiled.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come in this morning,” Evan said.

“Well, yes.” Dr. Beckett looked away for a moment. “That was three days ago.”

“What?” It didn’t feel like three days. “So what’s wrong with me?” Evan tried to be nonchalant, but he just sounded as scared to himself. He tried to casually shrug his shoulders, forgetting he’d been restrained, and a shock of pain raced through his whole body; though not as torturous as earlier.

“Major?! Come on now, lad. You must keep still; I really don’t want to sedate you again.” Dr. Beckett was leaning over him again.

“What the hell happened?” he ground out.

“You collapsed in the hallway,” Dr Beckett told him. “When we reached you your body was writhing, even though you were unconscious.” The Doctor paused. “We got you to the infirmary. Scans showed a growth on your back, between your shoulder blades.”

_Goddamned lump._

Lorne swallowed back his fear.

“And?” he prompted Dr. Beckett to continue.

“We could see it growing. It was quite fascinating from a medical point of view, but obviously incredibly painful. We kept you sedated. Whenever you woke up you just screamed. I must say, it is very good to see you awake and coherent.”

Evan shifted a little on the bed, the lump was now huge and obviously still there. Why hadn’t they removed it?

“Are you going to remove it?” he asked.

“I’m afraid that's quite impossible now. Though we are sure it has stopped growing.”

“Why? Take it away, it hurts and I’m all twisted up like this.”

Dr. Beckett looked away and back again, but didn’t continue.

Evan let the silence build a little, until Dr. Beckett finally broke the news. He lay there and listened, getting angrier and angrier at Carson’s explanations of genetic alterations and new bone growth. There was sympathy in the doctor’s voice as he gently tried to describe the physical deformities Evan now had and concluded that there wasn’t anything to be done.

Evan closed his eyes to shut out Carson and the infirmary. He wanted to shout, to scream, to hit something. He couldn’t even _move._

“The pain will lessen as you adjust to the changes,” Beckett was telling him.

“I don’t want to fucking adjust,” Evan spat at him.

“I know, lad. You should try to rest.”

“No. I want...” he paused. “I want to see. You must have taken scans, x-rays, something.”

Beckett sighed. “If I fetch them, will you at least try to rest after?”

“Sure,” Lorne bargained.

A few minutes later Carson was back with a tablet computer, which he held in front of Evan. The colorful pictures from the Ancient scanner made little sense to him; the only clear part was the extra bone mass around his shoulders. He glared at Carson until the doctor clicked onto a different picture, this one an x-ray. Lorne didn’t need to be any kind of genius to see it now. Spine, shoulders, arms, collarbone, and clearly all squashed up to fit under the skin and inside of his body...

“Are those _wings_?” he blurted out, stunned.

“Aye, lad. We believe they are. Well would be, if they were on the outside of your body.”

“Fuck.”

~~~OOO~~~

After four weeks the pain had been reduced to a level manageable by simple pills twice a day and he’d learned to walk again. He couldn’t stand up straight and was using a wooden walking stick that had come from god-knows-where because he stooped so low, but at least he was vaguely mobile. He couldn’t clean himself properly either-- the top half of his body just didn’t twist anymore, so a nurse came by daily to help him shower. He also couldn’t wipe his own ass, and he hated that.

Evan also hated people visiting; he’d thrown everyone out of his quarters on numerous occasions. Dr. Weir looked at him with such pity he’d gone as far as to tell her not to come back. Colonel Sheppard stopped by to drop off meaningless paperwork and hadn’t even been able to look at him. Teyla brought food on occasion and encouraged him to meditate with her. He only tolerated that because the meditation actually helped with the pain control. Ronon came to try to get him out and exercising. At least McKay and Zelenka gave their updates on the Ancient transformation device over the radio. At least he could order the marines to stay away. The real problem was that he couldn’t hide away from David.

Evan swung wildly from wanting to desperately cling to David and sob and not even letting him past the door, although he stuck to the latter. He didn’t want to see David, didn’t want to be _seen_ like this; not by someone he’d let get so close to him--in his mind, at least, this thing with David was clearly over.

The last few days had been horrible--well, more horrible than being suddenly disfigured by Ancient tech. The skin that was stretched across his back was so sensitive he could no longer bear to wear clothing. The huge baggy t-shirts and lightweight Athosian cloaks that had been given to him to hide under were abandoned across the furniture. His back itched like crazy. Dr. Beckett had told him the skin was red and inflamed and after each of his nurse assisted showers he got steroid cream rubbed in, another embarrassment.

He was tired, frustrated and angrily scrubbing at his back with the rough side of his walking stick when his door chime rang.

“Fuck off!” he muttered as the door slid open, not looking up to see who it was. There was only one person who was free to come and go, uninvited. Sure enough...

“What the hell do you think you’re doing!” David stormed across the room and snatched the pole from his hands.

“It itches,” Evan whined.

“You’re hurting yourself,” David said softly. “You’re bleeding.”

“I don’t care.”

“I do.”

“Why the fuck would you?” When David sucked in a sharp breath, Evan knew he’d hurt the other man.

“Evan.” David reached out and cupped his hand around Lorne’s cheek. “I love you.”

And there it was, out in the open, the acknowledgement of what they’d been doing for the last year and a half. The first time either of them had actually said the words, although Evan realised he already knew that David loved him, hearing it out loud felt different somehow.

 _No_ , thought Evan. _Just no. I’m not dragging you down into my hell_. So he pulled back and away from David to sit at his desk, putting the bed between them, where he wouldn’t be able to see David’s face no matter how much he tried to contort his now useless body. The silence grew thick and heavy around them and Evan bit his tongue to stop himself from saying anything else; he wasn’t sure if he’d be asking for forgiveness or flinging more hurt at David. David, apparently, had reached the end of whatever rope he had been holding onto.

“Get the fuck up.”

When Evan ignored him, David grabbed an arm and jerked him out of the chair. “I said up.” Evan craned his neck to look up at David and flinched back from the look on his face. It was hard and empty of all emotion.

“You’re through moping,” David stated, dragging him across the room. “Everyone is giving you space and time and you are wallowing in it. Pull yourself together, Major.” The use of his rank, here in this place when they were alone, stung.

David dragged him out of his quarters and down the corridor, not letting go, and not paying the slightest bit of attention to anyone they passed in the corridor or the fact that Evan was only half dressed. His plaintive moan at being out went unheard.

When they stopped, Evan was surprised he didn’t recognise his surroundings. Landscaped mounds of dirt in shades of brown and sparse stretches of grasses and stumpy saplings filled Evan’’s range of vision.

“Where are we?” he asked quietly.

“The lab. The new area, next to where you got hurt. I told you about it, but you don’t listen to me anymore,” David replied, still in that sharp tone.

“Why here?”

“Because I feel comfortable here.... and that’s about the only thing from stopping me hitting you right now.”

“David, you know this is over, don’t you?” Evan sighed.

“No, it’s not.” David loosened his grip on Evan but didn’t let go. “I meant it, I love you.”

“How can you?” Evan helplessly spread his arms. “Why would you? I mean, look at me.”

“Yes, let’s do that, shall we?” David crouched in front of him, forcing him to meet his eyes from his bent position.

They just looked at each other for what seemed like hours.

“I still see you,” David whispered, running hands up Evan’s arms to his neck. “It doesn’t matter, this doesn’t matter.” His hands moved carefully to Evan’s back. “You’re in pain and that hurts me, too. Don’t shut me out, please, I love you.” He gently took Evan’s chin and pulled him into a kiss. Evan was helpless against it, his anger and hatred fell away and he was left with just the fear he’d hidden for the last few weeks. He whimpered as he pressed himself as close to David as he could, opening up to deepen the kiss. He wanted this, needed this. To not face this whole thing alone anymore. He couldn’t stop the sobs from escaping, and he cried in David's arms.

For the first time since it had happened he completely relaxed and let David hold him, and so he was unprepared for the white hot pain that rippled down his spine in the wake of David’s touch. Gasping, he pulled away, trying to reach the burning skin on his back.

“Evan!” David was still holding onto him while he was scrabbling at his back, his hands winding around his body awkwardly to reach, overwhelmed by the desire to get his own skin off.

“I’ll get Dr. Beckett.” David sounded terrified. Evan gripped his wrist in one hand to stop David reaching for his radio.

“No,” he hissed. “Help me.” He pushed David’s hand to his back. “Get it off!”

“What? Get what off? Evan, STOP.” 

Evan let go of David, not able to find the words to fit the instinct to tear at his own flesh.

He could hear David frantically calling for medical assistance and ignored it, bending and twisting through the stripes of agony to dig his fingers into his back wherever he could reach. He flexed his shoulders and suddenly there was a wet ripping sound. He felt the skin across his back split open and the relief was incredible as all the new bones and muscles stretched and tensed, then relaxed as two massive pale grey blood-drenched wings unfurled themselves across his back and onto the dirt floor on either side of his body. He knelt there panting heavily, a huge grin on his face.

“Evan?”

Evan pulled himself up from all fours, his wings shuddering as they moved. His spine was straight and he could lift his head properly; he raised his arms and rotated his shoulders, then turned his head from side to side, pain free at last. It was positively euphoric. He stretched his wings out to either side, sticky and wet with blood, the feathers clumping together. They were huge, each reaching out easily eight feet or so. He shook them, moving them independently of his body, spilling droplets of blood onto the ground and onto David. He couldn’t describe the feeling of the air moving through his feathers and kept moving so they would dry.

“Evan?” David had one arm reaching out to touch him, paused in midair.

“Oh God!” Evan wrapped his arms around David, not caring that they were both now covered in blood splatter. He offered David a brief hug, before stepping back from him. He folded his wings in tight to his body and with a laugh snapped them open and pushed off from the ground following some unknown instinct. Within seconds he was airborne. His flight was a little unsteady and there wasn’t much space in the lab, but he took what he could get and had managed three circuits of the wide room before Dr. Beckett’s shout reached him.

He landed with an ungainly stumble in front of David and the medical team, breathless and still laughing.

“I can fly!” he gasped, holding onto David’s arm for balance. He felt so light all of a sudden. “I can _fly._ ” He giggled a bit, and then wavered on his feet.

“I think I need to sit down,” he said and did just that, dropping onto his knees and sitting on the ground, crossing his legs in front of him. Dr. Beckett and David were instantly at his side.

~~~OOO~~~

The infirmary was crowded--a lot of people seemed to find a reason to walk past his bed, and he was glaring as much as he could at them, but there was simply not enough room behind the curtains to hide all of him. He wanted to fold the wings up neatly by his sides so people wouldn’t stare, but it had taken a team of four nurses an hour to clean all the blood off, and they needed to dry. He’d prolonged the process because he couldn’t keep still, they didn’t understand how much it tickled, and they were doing it wrong, making the feathers stick up and point in the wrong direction. He was not going to groom himself in public; he still felt like a freak, just no longer in constant pain.

Dr. Weir had gaped at him, at a loss for words, probably for the first time in her career. Ronon had offered a succinct ‘Cool’ and then growled at the passing gawkers. Sheppard looked positively envious. McKay had barely glanced at him, just waved a hand before going back to his lab and promising to continue to figure out the device that had done this. David was nowhere to be seen, and that worried him. He just wanted out of the infirmary so he could go and find David; he had after all bled all over the man when he’d grown wings and then just flown away. He really needed to tell David that he loved him too. Actually he really needed just to see David.

It was obvious they were not going to let him out of the infirmary, so he tried to get comfortable. He couldn’t lay on his back, so he was resting on his side side, the wings folded against his back spilled over the side of the narrow infirmary bed, when David finally snuck in.

“Hey,” David said, pointedly looking at Evan's face and not the wings.

“Hi, where have you been all day?”

“I had some research to do,” David said.

“You went to _work_?” 

“It’s about you.” David sat in the chair. “I checked the lab, I remembered that we couldn’t get any of the plant samples to germinate, and then I remembered why.”

“Why?” Evan asked when David didn’t continue.

“It’s a hybrid lab.” David said quietly. “Everything there, plant and animal, is a hybrid experiment. The Animal lab is a little disturbing actually, there are some really unnatural mixes in there.”

“So?” asked Evan, “I think we’ve noticed I’m a hybrid now.” He waved towards his wings.

“Actually I wonder if that’s where a lot of Earth myths come from, unicorns and centaurs and such.” David mused.

“Is there a point to this?”

“Oh. Yeah. We’re pretty sure it’s irreversible. In fact we’re positive it’s irreversible. I’m sorry.”

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry,” David said again, and he reached out and took Evan’s hand.

“It doesn’t change how I feel about you.” David said

“I know,” Evan whispered. “Come here.” He pulled David closer until he caught on and leaned down to kiss Evan.

“I love you, too.” Evan said. “I know I never told you that, and I’m sorry I pushed you away these last few weeks. I don’t want you to go. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“I’m not going anywhere, I promise.”

“What am I going to do now?” Evan wondered.

“Learn to fly?”

~~~OOO~~~

“First day back at work, are you excited?” David asked while Evan was struggling with his t-shirt. It had been cut open at the back and somebody had sewn a couple of buttons on so he could do it up at the back underneath his wings. He’d have to find out who and thank them.

“It’s a desk job. What’s to be excited about?” Evan muttered, giving up on the shirt. David came and stood behind him and did up the buttons. Then he slid his hands around Evan’s waist and hugged him.

“They’re not making you leave. I’m not leaving, either. I got promoted.” David kissed Evan behind his ear.

Evan sighed. “Is that enough for you?” he asked.

“More than enough,” David said. “Amazing place to live, research I can do for the rest of my life. Hottest boyfriend in the galaxy, and he has wings.” David ran a hand down the top of one of Evan’s wings. Evan had to squirm out of the way, they were still working out how sensitive the wings were and somehow Evan hadn’t yet got around to telling David just how much touching them turned him on. He didn’t need his first day on duty to start with an erection.

“I love you.” Evan said.

“I love you too.” David replied. “Now go to work.” He slapped Evan's ass as he left.

Paperwork was just as boring as he remembered, and he was surprised when Sheppard called him mid-morning.

“Hey, Lorne,” Sheppard said in his earpiece. “Come up to the conference room, there’s some guests I’d like you to meet.”

“On my way,” Evan responded, remembering that a new ally was scheduled to meet with them today. It was unusual that negotiations were happening on Atlantis, but Evan didn’t question Dr. Weir’s decision too much.

He stepped into the conference room and before he could even speak, the two women sitting opposite Colonel Sheppard and Dr. Weir gasped and slid off their chairs to their knees.

They bowed low in front of Evan and he rolled his eyes.

“Oh Great One,” one of the women intoned from the floor.

“We would be honoured for you to bless our trade with these gracious people,” the other said into the carpet.

Sheppard stared at them.

“Perhaps we can discuss the amount of ore you have available.” Dr Weir said smoothly.

“I’m afraid we have not been entirely honest,” the first woman started.

“But that will not happen again,” the second said quickly.

“Not with The Great One here.” the first one added, and they bowed lower still.

Evan sighed. So began the rest of his life in Atlantis.

 

The End

  


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